Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Review: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian (Lux, #1)
Goodreads Summary:
Starting over sucks...When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring…. until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth...Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me...You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don’t kill him first, that is.

My Review: 
All I can say is, "Wow!" They must have someone amazing screening for new authors at Entangled Publishing. First, I read Kate Evangelista's book,  Taste. She mentioned to me that in August, she and some other Engtangled authors (she mentioned Jennifer L. Armentrout) are coming to Las Vegas and will be doing a book signing. I live in Vegas, so I decided to read Obsidian. While reading it, I started Pretty Amy and when I went to add it, I noticed that it's also published by Entangled. So, pretty much, if you're published by Entangled, I will give your book a chance from now on. Well, Obsidian has been out for a while, so most people have probably already read this book. For those who haven't, it's great! So good that after finishing I immediately went and bought the novella, Shadows. I don't normally read short stories or novellas, but I just had to because I can't wait for the next book in the series. 


I'm not going to do a review-type review. Because basically everyone but me has read this. Instead, I'm going to discuss the appeal of this novel. The Bad Boy. Ah, the literary and movie bad boy... he's the kissing cousin to the Hooker With a Heart of Gold. Meaning, they only exist in fiction. Which, I guess is part of the appeal. Well, before I get into what's appealing about the bad boy, let's meet one, shall we?

Sorry, couldn't find the end to this scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which Jennifer Gray (Jeanie) and Charlie Sheen (no name, just "Boy in Police Station") kiss. This so rocks Jeanie's world that her grannie panties get transformed and she skips out of the police station with a smile singing "Danke Schoen". The power of the bad boy in action.

This is the problem though... you've got to date a bad boy when you're young. This should be on the "Teenage Bucket List" of things to do before you become an adult (along with weird haircuts and facial piercings) and one of us comes to your house late at night to suck all the joy out of your life. Oh, and your soul (we have special machines), but we teach you the secret handshake. Look, you don't need joy and happiness- the secret handshake will get you special deals on vitamins, Metamucil, and white cotton underwear. It's really quite a good exchange. Why only when you're young? Well, if you date a bad boy, something like this will happen. He'll show up drunk on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas- at lunchtime no less. He'll vomit in your mother's fake plant in the corner of the room, put out his cigarette in the gravy dish, hit on your sister and maybe mother, get into an argument with your grandmother and call her the "b" word, etc. The only defense to this is youth- you have no defense if you're still doing this at 30, 35, or 40.

How to find a bad boy (Here are some groups with an unusually high concentrations of bad boys):
1.  The very, very attractive. This is self-explanatory.
2. Smokers. For some reason, many bad boys smoke. Note: I said smokers, not stoners. The greatest skill of a bad boy is not being able to shove two of these in his mouth:

3. Musicians, but not drummers. Drummers are not bad boys. Oh, you're a drummer. I'm sorry about that. (You can take that however you want) But dating a drummer does not count as dating a musician. (Look, I don't want to hear the mantra of all drummers, "But, Tommy Lee." [Me, looking down] You're not Tommy Lee. Sorry. Really, really, sorry.)

To clarify, I'm saying "DATE" a bad boy. [I'm beginning the MOM VOICE] Not sleep with. Never sleep with a bad boy- you both know where it's been (Eww!) and don't know where it's been. The don't know where it's been is really a problem because if a bad boy is ashamed enough to hide something, it's not a place you want to be- even second hand. Unless you can walk around with a syringe full of Drano in the jugular of the person who manufactured the condom for the next 10 years, stay away from the penis! [END MOM VOICE]

Okay, back to the literary bad boy as personified by Daemon- who is a great literary bad boy. Here are some reasons why we love to READ about bad boys:

1.The literary bad boy is appealing because deep down, he's sensitive. He's hiding the little boy behind the jerk because he's scared of being hurt/had a bad childhood, etc. Eventually the heroine will figure it out and fix him and they will live happily ever after...and this is why it's so appealing. Because life with a bad boy rarely has a happily ever after- remember? It usually ends with a drunken holiday revelation that he's impregnated your sister.
2. You never dated a bad boy and now can only live vicariously through fiction.
3. You were one of the rare women who snagged a bad boy and domesticated him. Now, he isn't so bad- more like bald.


14 comments:

  1. I see the point of your post, but just can't stand bad boys. Can NOT stand them. Why? Because they are jerks. The whole "don't want to be hurt thing?" Yeah 99.9 percent of books do not do it right, they just come off as jerks and the girls just takes it. And young women or girls and women wonder why they always find jerks to date... because they think they can change them. Then they complain about it. Sorry, no sympathy here. My opinion: you pretty much deserve it after while and I think you deserve to be treated worst for putting yourself in that situation and staying there.... whole different story if you make an effort to leave (him calling you names, saying your stupid, repeatedly, and then finally uttering sorry once and you forgive for all his misdeeds... no that doesn't count as making an effort to leave).

    Bad boys in books, if they have a personality, a reason for being mean I would buy it. The whole I don't want to be hurt or I don't want to hurt you excuse is crap and I don't buy it. I never will. It's a poor excuse. A lame one. Liking a bad boy in YA books (I'm not talking about the .01 percent), is like being okay with killing every person who has HIV or AIDS, they're already dying, might as well save them from the pain. Wait, it doesn't even have to be a person with aids, someone with a painful chronic uncurable disease... kill them why let them live; we are saving them from the pain. (Extreme - I know, but it gets the point across) So why be nice to the girl? I'm (talking from bad boy perspective) only going to hurt them or they are only going to hurt me. I'm saving myself (or her) from the pain. You see how stupid and insanely ignorant that sounds.

    Most bad boys in books are cut outs. They have no explaination of their own distrusts other than the love thing. You look at good bad boys out there, and there's always a reason why they are bad (the reason is always outside of the love)... they are treated badly from other folks, they believe in an ideal that makes them radical, they are ambitious and wants to be the top man/person and crushing everyone else to get there isn't a problem... these are reasonable excuses... the I don't want to hurt you/myself... nope sorry, you're not a bad boy, you're just an emo kid thinking it's still Halloween and your costume of a bad boy still sucks.

    Sorry I didn't mean to vomit on your blog post. As you can see I hate bad boys in YA. I don't hate them all... but most of them I wish they would die, along with the girl(s) (in the books of course) who pines after them... but they are the main characters! At least then it's a happy ending. Happy ending because I don't have to sit and fumed through that mess of a book.

    Also, I knew you weren't too serious about this subject as you were joking throughout the post, but I can't help it... the wanna-bes "bad boys" in YA and I don't mix well. This outrage is not targeting you. I just have to puke. Call it a crusade for better bad boys characters and characterization. I mean is it wrong to want better charcters?

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    1. Yeah I know want you mean... only a couple of rare books can pull off the bad boy character, I love read books that can pull it off but in real life I just want a nice guy cause I don't have time to change a bad boy!

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  2. Holy Moly that was a HUGE comment! Sorry!

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    Replies
    1. Do you feel that glorifying bad boys makes girls/women more likely to seek out this kind of relationship in real life? Thinking that it's romantic and they can change the person. I don't really think that in most cases love can fix a truly damaged person and that these relationships rarely have a "Happily Ever After" in real life.

      Thinking about your comment made me think about doing a follow up type post about some of these issues. Still doing research. Post will appear...eventually.

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  3. Haha....I love your review!!
    I need to find a bad-boy now :P

    This is a great book. I absolutely loved Daemon.

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  4. Hello there! Very interesting and informative review.

    "You've got to date a bad boy when you're young." - Oh yes. Been there. Done that. A lot of times. HAHA

    And yes. Oh dear, I don't want to use my 'mom voice' .. :) Yes, you should only 'Date' a bad boy and never 'sleep' .. unless the bad boy is already your husband, and probably, when that happens, he's not that much of a bad boy anymore. :))

    Love this review!

    Oh, I'm Ara @ My Book and My Coffee. Already a follower. (GFC, Linky and Twitter)

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  5. Hey. I love your reviews and I followed you by email (maggiereid1997@gmail.com)
    Keep up the reviews ! I am also a blogger. Readingwritingtrackstar.blogger.com

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  6. Lovin' this post. Luckily I was smart enough to never bring the only bad boy I dated around my family. And I think most girls who do are also partly wanting the attention of their parents, like a very public "Look what I can date and you can't stop me" message. As far as my bad boy, he ended up cheating and I may or may not still think about it...but I always will remember the lure...and I love reading about it in YA!!!
    -Jenna @ Fans of Fiction

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  7. Also, Shay, contact me a fansoffiction@hotmail.com...you won my 400 follower giveaway and I can't find your email:) I need your mailing address and whether or not you still want the signed copy of Don't Expect Magic. There's also Bittersweet, My Fairy Godmother, and In the Arms of Stone Angels to choose from.

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  8. I love this book so much! Obsidian is one of the best book I've read this year! And of course I love Daemon and all his hot bad-boy attitude! Thank you for the review!

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  9. A great review! I must admit I'm a sucker for a bad boy in YA but more likely because I have always avoided them in real life ;)

    I loved Obsidian! Have just received a copy of Shadows & can't wait to get hold of Onyx - love JLA <3

    Thankyou for sharing :) I am a new follower.

    Sharon - www.obsessionwithbooks.blogspot.com

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  10. Haha love your review. I always love the bad boy in books because deep down we all know he's not really a bad boy. Can't say the same for bad boys in real life though. I've never dated one but i have a feeling most of the bad boys in real life are just plain jerks. Although I will continue to search for the exception :P

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  11. I love bad boys, but I can't be bothered to try to hard to get them... I'll date one eventually?

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  12. I just finished reading Obsidian, enjoyed the book more than I expected, Can't wait for Onyx!

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